Recently I wrote about photographers that inspire me. I set that blog up by talking about my history as a musician, notably, a jazz saxophonist. I event shared a little video clip. The intro to that blog got me thinking about how I’ve personally evolved as a creative, from mostly-a-musician to mostly-a-photographer. I thought I’d share some of that journey, including why that happened. Maybe you’ve evolved, too.

In the Beginning

It all started at the piano when I was four. Then keyboards and synths of the early 90’s. Then the recorder that elementary students learned to play. Then when I was ten, I picked up the saxophone and I was hooked. Middle school band led to high school band, which included marching band, symphonic band, and my personal favorite - jazz band. I took it so serious. I practiced so much. By the time we moved to Germany for my junior and senior year of high school, I was deep into the discipline of being a saxophonist. I started giving lessons to younger students. I practiced hours each day. In my senior year, I started recording in a studio in Germany.

*All European Ensemble Band, where I was first chair saxophonist, 2000*

Facing Death

Everything changed on September 18th, 2001. I had graduated high school a few months before, but had planned to start college in the spring semester. We were still living overseas and college would be in the USA, and I guess it just wasn’t time for me to go in the fall. Thankfully, I was home that night in September when after a week-long headache, I suffered a brain aneurism in the night and thankfully, survived it. I woke up in a German hospital, which would become my home for the next five weeks.

In the aftermath of that event, it was recommended by the doctors that I put down the saxophone or anything else that would put any pressure on my head. While the saxophone was completely unrelated and I’d learn years later that it was not nor would ever be an issue, I had to put it down in 2001. This meant my college plans, namely Jazz Studies at Appalachian State University in North Carolina would be forfeited. It was back to the drawing board for college, and music.

the Transition to Guitar

I spent the following school year at home, in Germany. I started playing bass, and eventually, guitar. My first band was called Professor Science, a trio with myself on bass, my brother on drums, and our guitarist friend Kevin. Then there was Six Dollar Chips, appropriately named for when my friends and I bought an entire box of chips for six dollars.

When I arrived at college, I was still a pretty beginner guitarist, but in that year at home between high school and college recovering from the aneurism, I put a ton of time into guitar. I ended up at Roanoke Bible College (now Mid-Atlantic Christian University) to study theology and counseling, and become a counselor. And during those four years, I played guitar a lot.

The bands and gigs during the college years were numerous. I did a lot of solo coffee shop gigs. I started a hardcore band with a guy named Justin that we called Theophilus. Then I played in Bayview, a punk-rock band. On the side I had Barefoot, an acoustic / hippie band. We did an MWR tour in Europe during the Iraq War.

That all led to the band that educated me the most.

Sole Somatic

My friend Nick and I had gone to high school in Europe together, then went to college together at this small Christian college in North Carolina. He was rapping in a group called Dirt Road, and I was playing in Bayview. We spent fall break of our sophomore year together, and listened to a lot of Pax 217 and Linkin Park. We thought - we should combine our sounds and make something new. Out of that conversation and subsequent jam sessions with friends, Hip-Hop Fusion was born and Sole Somatic was launched.

This band taught me a ton about music, touring, business, and recording. During our tenure, we had some incredible experiences. Our conservative Christian college gave us a free-pass regarding curfew and acceptable venues, and we played clubs and bars all over until all hours of the night. Sometimes we’d get back to our town in the middle of the night, and go have cigars by the river on campus.

We recorded our debut EP in the defunct printing press building at our college. We used stacks of boxes as soundproofing. That EP immediately got tens-of-thousands of plays on MySpace, which was how you gauged success at the time. We went on to win contests as a band. We played some big shows. We sold tons of merch. One of the highlights was playing The Norva, one of my favorite venues. We shared the stage throughout our career with some awesome bands.

To Solo & Beyond

Once we all graduated and moved away, unable to sustain the long-distance band, we all eventually settled into other things. I went back to my acoustic guitar, and began writing songs more and more. I released three solo projects in 2008, 2009, and 2010. They were painful songs, mostly, about divorce. During the Sole Somatic years, I got married and a few years later, it ended. I share about it and the aftermath in my book, Father in the Wild. As I reflect on those solo albums, I really love some of the content, and I hate some of it as well. With streaming giving you full-access to what was once behind a paywall, I decided to pull them down many years ago.

The Church

During this entire story, there is a parallel to the church happening. I started leading church music as soon as I picked up the guitar. Then in college, I led worship all of the time, from chapel events on campus to local churches to conferences. Soon after graduating, I started working as a Worship Pastor, and continued that for over a decade, when I transitioned to an Executive Pastor that still was very involved with worship.

It was in these years that I had many bands, songs, projects, and albums. There was my band (Dave Herring Band) in Minnesota, and we did faith-based events across the upper-midwest. Then there was the solo stuff Amanda & I did together. Eventually, I joined The Point and wrote and released two projects, with a third in the works when I stepped out.

Over my entire music career, I’ve played across Europe - from churches and chapels in Germany to pubs in Ireland. I’ve played on the Sea of Galilee, on the Mount of Olives, and in the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel. I’ve played reggae on the streets of Haiti. I’ve played in nearly every state in this nation. I’ve been a producer, mix engineer, studio musician, live musician, songwriter, performer, teacher, and just about any other role one can play with music. It’s been an incredible ride.

Singing “In the Garden,” my grandparents favorite hymn, while in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

As much as I have loved being a musician (and very much still am a musician), I wanted to share what evolution to something else has looked like for me.

The Day The Music Died

When our son was born in 2014, music began to take a back seat. Gigging got harder. Amanda and I could no longer easily do music together. Recording in a home studio got harder. Mixing music at an appropriate volume was impossible. From 2014 to 2018, music just diminished more and more until I had basically become a Sunday musician, only playing at church. I was still writing a few songs a year, and releasing some music here or there, but no full albums anymore. And certainly not much gigging. Not much going on at all, really. I sort of fell into a creative slump and depression during this, as I had no outlet.

In many ways, photography has always been part of my life, too. Even just the point-and-shoot era of my photography journey is part of that story. I have always had a camera in the house, as far back as I can remember. It was a point-and-shoot film camera in high school. The first professional camera I bought in college was a Nikon D50. Then it was a D80. Then it was a D3100. Then I moved to a Canon 6D. Then a 5DM4. Then an EOSR. In 2019, I switched to Sony, where I’ve been since.

They say the best camera is the one you have with you, and for about a decade, I rarely grabbed the DSLR and just shot with my iPhone. I took the DSLR on trips, or for something specific I wanted to shoot. But mostly, it was the iPhone. Until 2018.

The Trip that Launched it All

I wasn’t doing well. When creatives stop creating, we start suffering. And I was suffering. One of the things Amanda & I have always done is travel. We’ve even kept doing that with the kids. We typically travel in the fall, and in the fall of 2018 I needed something new and inspirational. We always headed west when we lived in Virginia, mostly to California. We still went to California in 2018, but then we headed up the coast to Seattle and spent five days exploring the PNW. I brought the Canon 6D and the nifty-fifty along.

It was on this trip that I rediscovered how much I love photography.

I cannot pinpoint what it was about this trip, but I truly came alive during it. The suffering ceased. The depression subdued. Creativity surged within me. Now that it’s been four years since I explored the PNW with my camera, I better understand what happened within me. Maybe it’s happened to you, as well. I realized that I’m so much more than just what I’ve pigeon-holed myself into over and over again. That even though music had greatly diminished due to life’s circumstances, I hadn’t actually lost my creative-edge. I hadn’t lost my logos.

The Evolution of Creativity

I use to define myself by what I did. We all tend to do that, I think. Someone who plays music is a musician. Someone who paints is a painter. An author writes. We even do this with our jobs and careers.

I don’t do this anymore. I’ve realized I’m bigger than that. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, but I’m not a musician. I’m not a photographer. I’m not an author or writer. I’m a creative.

Being a creative lets me tap into the logos, what the ancient Greeks referred to as “the divine reason, implicit in the cosmos.” My divine being and reason is bigger than my task or medium - it’s literally the reason for my being. I am a creative. I create. It’s that simple. I can create in many ways, but that is the reason for my existence, defined by the divine. I’m a creative.

This is what it means to evolve as a creative. Yes, shifting mediums is an evolution. But the ultimate evolution is seeing yourself larger than what you do. You have a divine logos as well, and it is bigger than any task or talent within you. It’s all of you - your purpose and reason, implicit in the cosmos.

I know this was a long story. In many ways, it was fun to write it and travel my own cosmos to the ancient points of light in my past. And if you survived the read, I hope you see what my evolution looked like. I am elevated because of it.

The Evolution of Creativity

In the Beginning

Facing Death

the Transition to Guitar

Sole Somatic

To Solo & Beyond

The Church

The Day The Music Died

The Trip that Launched it All

The Evolution of Creativity

Be Patient with Photography

2023 Alberta Photography Workshop